a blog about perfume

It’s such a conundrum. I have more than enough perfume for life, yet the occasional bottle or split still finds its way into my crowded perfume cabinet. While I return to my favorites and exciting, newer bottles, perfectly good perfume sits and risks turning. What’s a girl to do? Find more ways to use perfume, that’s what. Here are a few uses for perfume you like enough to keep, but fear you won’t use before it spoils:

Scent your curtains. Diaghilev reportedly sprayed his curtains with Guerlain Mitsouko so when the wind ruffled their fabric, his rooms were filled with Mitsouko’s sepia peach and moss. Such a romantic idea. A few years ago I followed his lead and spritzed the cotton velvet curtains in my living room with Mitsouko EdP. I nearly threw up. For about a week I couldn’t spend time on the couch without occasional forays to the kitchen for air. Fragrant curtains are a terrific idea, but I recommend something with less presence than Mitsouko…

Guerlain will launch Jasminora, the newest addition to the Aqua Allegoria range, this Spring. The Aqua Allegoria line focuses on lighter perfumes for summer wear and is meant to “showcase nature”; the packaging was given an update in 2010…

Secrets de Rose is a new fragrance from Les Parfums de Rosine — at least, fairly new, since Rosine’s releases usually travel to the United States at a leisurely pace. This Eau de Parfum, described as “a rose in black…mysterious and disturbing,” was created in 2009 by perfumer François Robert. It is an “amber floral” with top notes of plum, liquorice, rose essence, bitter orange, and saffron; heart notes of magnolia, ylang, rose absolute, white jasmine, and seeds of cumin; and base notes of sandalwood, Himalaya oak moss, amber resin, labdanum, and musk.

Les Parfums de Rosine has designated Secrets de Rose as the “seductress” of its fragrance family, but this scent really isn’t as heady or animalic as the promotional text would have us believe. Its opening note of bitter orange, accompanied by a breath of cumin and anise, is almost androgynous; there’s also a hint of something that I can’t place, except that it reads as “sour green” to my nose (perhaps galbanum?). Within a half hour, however, Secrets de Rose blooms into a feminine rose-saffron heart that’s smoothly blended and long lasting. A little saffron goes a long way in my personal preferences…